Field
The disclosure relates to a method, apparatus and system for dynamic monitoring of radio emission compliance for individual radio devices. Specifically, the disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for identifying non-compliant radio emissions and enforcement of compliance.
Description of Related Art
Radio transceivers are either static or dynamic in their transmission capability. Static radio transceivers are built or programmed by the manufacturer to operate at a known frequency spectrum and protocol. Upon manufacturing, such devices are certified by the regulatory agencies (e.g., Federal Communication Commission) for operating within regulated parameters. Regulatory certification is to ensure that no transceiver disturbs communication of other transceivers. Once certified, the operating parameters of the radio transceiver do not change and recertification is not required.
Dynamic radios—also known as field programmable radio frequency (FPRF) devices—are a class of radio frequency transceiver microchips that deliver a multi-standard, multi frequency, radio operation. An FPRF mimics the concept of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in the RF domain to enable ad hoc programing of the RF microchip to perform at different frequencies and protocols. The key advantage of the FPRF is that the underlying device can be programmed to operate at desired frequency spectrum and under different protocols. A software defined radio (SDR) is a type of dynamic radio.
Equipment manufacturers, or third party software providers, develop new firmware versions of the FPRF and apply them to the mobile devices. The new firmware is provided via firmware over the air (FOTA) mechanisms. Once the new firmware is uploaded, the programmable radio will operate with different parameters. By law, a new regulatory certification or recertification, is required for operating the transceiver under the new parameters. However, dynamic recertification is conventionally unavailable for deployed transceivers.